Water soluble phenol formaldehyde resins such as resoles have been known for a number of years. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,757,108 and 4,960,826, hereby incorporated by reference.
Emulsifiable resoles having dispersed inert salts are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,504. The emulsifiers that are utilized are proteinaceous compounds which are prepared in the presence of alkali metal hydroxide, ammonium hydroxide or organic amines such as triethyl amine. Suitable proteinaceous compounds include casein, soya protein, and the like.
Other patents of interest in the phenol formaldehyde/glass fiber area are U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,931,738; 3,072,595; 3,223,668; 3,253,948; 3,331,885; 3,487,048; 3,616,179; 3,617,428; 3,702,798; 3,707,296; 3,734,918; 3,819,441; 3,817,920; 3,839,236; 3,907,724; 3,915,905; 3,919,134; 3,956,204; 3,956,205; 4,176,105; 4,285,848; 4,324,833; 4,611,020; 4,757,108; and Re. 30,375.
The difficulty that has occurred with many phenol formaldehyde resins that have been utilized in the past is that, in the final cured product, there is a highly offensive fishy or ammoniacal odor. The odor results from the degradation of urea that is used as a formaldehyde scavenger in the curing process. The final product contains undesirable quantities of odoriferous materials which are alkylamines. The alkylamines are mono-di- or trialkylated amines wherein the number of carbon atoms is from 1 to 3 per alkyl group.
It is an object of the present invention to obtain fully cured glass fiber compositions with phenol formaldehyde resins binding the junctions of the glass fiber with low odor associated with such cured glass fiber compositions.